Posted tagged ‘holy paladin mop gear’

When I found out that I was to spent Mists of Pandaria release week in a hotel room on the other side of the country, with a stranger looking over my shoulder at all times, I could have cried. I so wanted to be raid ready as soon as Vaults became available. Whether I’ll pull it off or not, I don’t know, but, the Light as my witness, I will put all chances on my side.

First step, easing the gearing process with a shopping list. And since I’m not going to spend 24+ hours making a list without bragging about it, the list is getting a front page spot on the blog.

How The List Works

Gear is divided by slot (logically) and is listed more or less in order of desirability. I have a stat priority of:

Spirit > Intellect > Haste > Mastery > Crit

I suspect that mana regen (which grants wonderful mana freedom) will be the sexiest stat when it comes to pre-raid gear. Once we get more geared, once we get more in tune with our mana supply and, kind of importantly, once the rest of the raid gets more geared, I expect the throughput stats will be more interesting. Whatever happens, though, gearing will always be about finding that sweet spot between bigass heals and the eternally replenishing mana bar.

Not All of This Will be Available at Launch

Right. But overlooking the unavailable items until they’re released is a heck of a pile easier than updating the post every few weeks. And you guys know me. I hardly ever update a post.

How do I get the Reputation or Crafting Items?

You’ll have to either find a reliable guide or discover for yourself once MoP goes live. I dug around a bit, but the information relating to Reputation and Crafting is a little nebulous at the moment. (It sounds like the currency formally known as Valor/Justice points is now used to purchase Rep.) I’m expecting the clouds to have lifted by the time I’ve hit level 90 and am ready to use my own shopping list.

What About PvP Gear?

I included the pieces that you can get (according to Beta’s Dungeon Journal) from the World Bosses (Sha of Anger looks like the new Vault of Archevon while Salyis’ Warband seems like a regular raid encounter but I included loot from both, just in case) but I left out the rest because I really, really, really doubt I’ll be PvPing to gear myself to raid. Besides, everyone knows where to find PvP gear.

Some of the PvP pieces, even the craftable PvP pieces, are surprisingly kind of not bad. I know that raiding with any kind of resilience on you is dirty and shameful, but honestly, some of the PvP gear is better than some of the non-PvP gear.

Is This a Best In Slot (BIS) List?

It is not. This is a pre-raid shopping list. It’s not even a pre-raid BIS list. Without any MoP raiding experience, it’s very hard for me to guess exactly what’ll be the bestest of the best for stepping into Mogu’Shan Vaults. I listed everything in order of what I’d try, but think of it less as a rigid “You must do this” and more as a spectrum ranging from “Impress your team with this piece!” to “If you’re down on your luck, you can show up with this and not get flayed. Much.”

Note: The Tier legs White Tiger Greaves are a little odd with no spirit. I wouldn’t go for them as my first resort, but if you want them to complete a set bonus, you can find the token on Amber Shaper Un’sok in Heart of Fear and the non-raid finder version drops from Pandaria World Boss: Sha of Anger.

Note: Don’t take the trinket order too seriously. I ranked them using the very sophisticated technique of eyeballing. If someone were to test and theorycraft these trinkets, the results might be somewhat different.